MiniCooper

I have been in Australia just on 18 months and love it. There are pro's and cons particularly as I live in a regional area which is a 7 hour drive from Brisbane or an expensive flight but I do have a view of the ocean from my balcony. Our house is not far off being built and I am fortunate to work at one of the top schools in Queensland. Recently I had to fly back to the UK in October as my dad was on deaths door and my sister was given a terminal prognosis. My employers supported me and even paid me extra leave. I know that would never have happened back in my previous employment in the UK. I then flew back in December taking a couple of extra days off work for my sisters wedding. Again the School were fantastic in their support and I am truly so grateful. Sadly my sister died two days after her wedding day. Dad managed to pull through but we are still not out of the woods. Its been a pretty tragic year for my family and sometimes I wonder if I should be back in the UK to support them, but I know this is where I belong. It took me 60 hours to get home with several layovers but the UK makes me so miserable. I grew up in a pretty rough area so that doesn't help but even still I find the UK so 'controlling'. Yes we go to work early in the morning and come home late some days but our weekends are spent having exceptional coffee, delicious avocado on toast and long strolls on the beach. I came here without ever visiting and was often overwhelmed by the 'returners' but everyones experience will be different, depending on where you live, work and what sort of person you are. Good Luck!

After a 15 hour layover in Abu Dhabi, a 13 hour flight and an overnight stay in Brisbane it took just over 60 hours to get back to my home town of Yeppoon. I awoke in the morning to this beautiful sight.

Hi John, the last two times I have transferred from NAB to the Uk I have had to do it as an international transfer costing me transfer fees through NAB. I have a moneycorp account but only have access to the UK bank account details provide on the website. is there an Australian account so I don’t have to make an international transfer thus saving in fees?

A lot of you are saying you cannot offer words of support but just the fact that you are responding and that I know there are others out there who have gone through similar provides comfort. You are all incredibly empathetic and I’m truly overwhelmed by the kindness and comfort you have offered. Although I don’t wish this upon anyone it’s reassuring that others have experienced it. im in a really difficult situation at the moment though as dad is still with us and I feel like I’m just hanging around waiting for him to pass (which sounds dreadful). He’s perked up but the docs said it’s only a matter of time. My employers have been great but can’t pay me forever and will only pay me until the end of next week. Additionally I am missing my husband terribly. I miss my life and the sense of routine. My mum is now telling me I must go home as she is starting to worry about me now but what if he dies when I’m on my way home? What if he dies when I get back and I have to fly straight back for the funeral? Do I have to attend the funeral? Just to be clear, Mum wouldn’t move to Oz im just wondering about holiday visas and the length of them which will be something to think about in the future.

Wow! What a wonderful, thoughtful, kind group of people you are. I am incredibly grateful for your support, advice and guidance. i know Mum may not want to come. I’m not thinking of a parent visa but was wondering if it’s possible for her to come and go as she pleases if necessary. She is a rock, so strong and she will be fine but gosh I’m so worried about her. i just want to thank you all again and apologise to those of you who have gone through this in the past or may be going through it now. It is truly dreadful and heartbreaking.

Thank you both. It means a lot to know there is so many kind, supportive people out there.

This is a bit of a tragic story. after being in Australia 11 months, Mum told me My 58 year old Dad had lung cancer. I felt despair and sobbed for days. However Mum had previously had cancer and is OK so we remained positive. He was having chemo which was brutal and making him so ill but we were convinced all would be Ok. At the same time My 40year old sister was in agony and peeing blood. She kept getting fobbed off by the doctors. She told them she was convinced she had bladder cancer. She was referred as urgent to a consultant. He declared she wasn’t urgent and she waited and waited months before my nan finally paid for her to go private. She saw the same consultant but just had to pay for it. He did exploratory surgery and found a satsuma sized tumour in her bladder. Still we remained positive yet angry that she was let down by the NHS. last Thursday she had an op to remove her whole reproductive system and they found it was in her spine. She was given 6-12 months. My mum broke down and my dad just held his head in his hands. That night, still sick from the chemo he coughed up a litre of blood and was rushed to resuscitation. He was told if he went into cardiac arrest they wouldn’t revive him. mum had to make another devastating phone call to me. I crumbled to the floor and begged my husband to get me home. I already had a flight booked for December to surprise them all. Etihad changed my flight but I had pay 900 dollars. I live in a regional area and there were no flights to Brisbane and the next flight stopped In Melbourne first. we drove through the night for 8 hours to Brisbane, sleeping in a car park. Etihad we’re great giving me rows of three seats on each flight. It was the most traumatic experience of my life and I was travelling for 50 hours but I made it back driving straight to the hospital with my darling brother. I’m the baby so everyone was so worried about me travelling back alone. it was so hard seeing my strong, proud dad on oxygen. He didn’t look like my dad anymore. The hospital have said he is dying. My employer has been fantastic and the support has been incredible but I have so much to think about. i don’t want to leave my mum but she is incredible. She’s so strong! She said she would never want me to stay here and I could never imagine staying here. It’s so miserable and our house build has just commenced. i know she’ll be alright but at only 58 I’m wondering what her options for coming out to Oz are? I don’t think she’d ever move there. its only now I realise just how far away I am. i am sorry for the miserable post it just feels so good to get it all out.

Saturday morning Yoga on Yeppoon foreshore

I live in Yeppoon and work in Rocky and find Telstra works perfectly well. I've never had an issue with it. Hope you settle in well.

Hi, I've not been on POI for ages but I found it incredibly useful when I was traipsing the web for info. It is very difficult to gain an insight into how life will be once you arrive due to some people having a great time and others hating it. Of course, naturally we gravitate to the more negative stories and feel that our experience will be exactly the same. It may well be for some however here is my story: On 4th July (independence day, how apt) I flew alone, leaving many friends behind in Cyprus. As the plane left larnanca I sat sobbing watching the city disappear below. I was going to miss it, I'd had an incredible 3 years there but I was excited and apprehensive about our new adventure. I won't lie, the flight was horrendous. I landed ini Abu Dhabi and then flew for 13 hours to Brissy. I spotted the west coast of Oz and got excited hoping we'd be landing soon enough. 4 and a bit hours later we touched down. I was packed in between tow other people so do yourself a favour and ask for a window seat. Anyway I got to Rockhampton airport with 3 gigantic suitcases and the first thing I noticed was how friendly people were. They kept offering to help me with my bags. I checked into a hotel, showered and slept, waking early to the glorious sunshine of the sunshine state. I went to the bank to pick up my card. It wasn't there. I had to order a new one to my temporary address. Two weeks later it still hadn't arrived so I had to get one delivered to the bank. Annoying but not a deal breaker. I visited centre link and sorted out my Medicare. Dead easy. I went online and sorted out my TFN and then spent more time searching for places to live. Now I was in a position where I had a job to go to. Once I secured my PR I just applied for hundreds of posts and managed to secure a position in a very good school. I went into school, met people, prepared for the start of the new term and one of the guys even invited me onto his boat which was immense. Again, everyone was so helpful and interested in why and where I come from. It took 4 days after the flight before I started eating again and even longer to stop waking up at 4am. The hardest thing though was my hubby not arriving until after the new term started, he followed 3 weeks after me. I definitely needed to arrive two weeks before the job commenced to sort out a rental and all the little fiddly bits. I spent days exploring, eating out alone, visiting botanic gardens, car show rooms etc. I must say it was very liberating doing it all independently. Anyway so I booked temp accommodation for 4 weeks and a hire car for 4 weeks, which we extended whilst our GBP transferred over. 3 and a bit months on. We are renting at the beach with sea views (loads cheaper than the big cities) and we are walking distance to bars and restaurants for the first time since we have been together. It's a 35 minute drive to work which I'm not sure I will want to do forever. The apartment is lush but very poorly built. There are mould spots in places due to poor ventilation. I'd hate to see what it looks like in 10 years. the beach is gorgeous and just yesterday we visited Great Keppel island which was like somewhere in Thailand. The people are incredibly friendly and we have just bought our second car. We transferred some cash just before Brexit. We got almost 2:1. We didn't want to transfer anymore until the rate increased but we had to bite the bullet for the cars and lost a fair whack. If you can hang on, do! Our shipping arrived, some of it was broken, luckily our apartment is furnished. One piece of advice, pack some warm clothes. I packed dreadfully and had to buy new bits when I arrived and I packed lots of work clothes only to be provided with a uniform. So annoying. One thing that is frustrating, recently there was a music festival on the beach. Hubby and I took a picnic bag with some wine. I noticed no one else was drinking - turns out after some googling that its against the law. WHY??? Everyone pretty much drives at the speed limit or under because its a criminal offence to speed. I'm sure if you get caught twice in a year you go to jail?? someone will correct me I'm sure. You need a boat license to ride a jetski. It just feels like there is a lot of red tape, however I did come from Cyprus where rules were a little lax. Internet is weird. There is 4g everywhere which is great but you don't pay for speed you pay for like 15gbs of data...? or something like that. Hubby deals with that. Doctors are expensive unless you go to a bulk billing doctor and then its free. Car insurance is similar if not a bit cheaper. I don't think shopping is more expensive but we do visit farmers markets for veg and stuff. And in Cyprus food was relatively expensive. Eating out and drinking can cost a bomb...but then sometimes it doesn't so swings and roundabouts. I went to a 'hairdresser' I use the term loosely who turned my lovely blonde hair orange, hacked at it (it was halfway down my back) gave me square layers and ripped off half my eyebrow. I then had to pay someone else to fix it (not my eyebrow thats still refusing to grow). So please do your research as that ruined mine and hubby's weekend when I was crying about the 'monster' who hated hair. We haven't made many friends yet, but its still only early and we are rather enjoying exploring on our own. I did meet a cousin in brissy whom I have not seen in 10 years or something and we have friends coming to stay on the weekend. I used to play netball but the season has just finished and I went along to rugby but the matches are at 7:30 at night! I'm an early bird so will perhaps wait until I'm a bit more settled before getting involved in that. I know its super rambly but I'm just trying to remember stuff. It's hard to believe we started the process only a year ago and have been here almost 4 months. I can barely remember all the panic and worry now. I know at the moment those going through it are panicking about not getting everything done, not liking it, not getting a job etc. Its a leap into the unknown, but do you know things just have a way of working themselves out. We love it here. I am currently on school holidays and this morning I took a stroll along the beach and spent the afternoon in the pool. Life is good, oh and hubby got a job within a week of applying so its not all doom and gloom. I'm sitting here writing this at my dining table with floor to ceiling windows that look out across the bay. It can't all be bad can it? Anyway, when I was reading these stories myself way back when, I promised I would come back and post. I do hope its helpful.

Do you have a visa? To apply for a visa you need to have so many years experience in that field and you have to have your skills and quallys assessed by AITSL before applying for a visa. Once the visa is approved you register with the teaching body in whichever state you choose to reside.

Hey everyone, thanks for your kind words. Arrived late last night after 3 flights and 26 looooonnnngggg hours! I do not fancy doing that flight ever again. So I've spent the day looking around, going to the bank and have checked into my rental. I have been shopping and located the wine shop Checking everywhere for spiders but so far its OK!

I'm currently sat in my dining room surrounded by my luggage awaiting my husband to take me to the airport. I have a 24 hour journey to Australia all on my lonesome...then I have two weeks and a smidge in Rockhampton before my husband joins me. I have felt nothing up until now but I am super scared right now...an I'm not even sure what of! :arghh:

Hi, sorry to jump in, what is ABN? I leave on Monday...alone. Hubby doesn't finish work until 20th July so will follow then! I have no idea how I'm feeling! Impossible to describe.

Emptying of cupboards and drawers, packing two suitcases, last minute washing and taking apart furniture all ready for our removals. Bit tricky mind as some of the furniture isn't ours and a lot of stuff we aren't taking so I am going around the house sticking pink love heart post its on the stuff that needs to stay. Literally cannot wait for tomorrow evening when it has gone!